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It really is a hidden treasure, its quite out of the way from most of the wineries in Margaret River so it’s easily missed, but its well worth the extra drive. We actually went to visit the brewery after a horrible meal at Wise wines restaurant, and it really made our day (and stomachs) feel better! The atmosphere is fantastic, and its so much fun trying the beers. I know I sound so much like a girl when I say this (as my brother so dutifully informed me when I said this) but the tasting trays- they’re so cute! The beers of course are very good- this place definitely beats the other two breweries in Margaret River, and the food is surprisingly fantastic, this combined with the laid back atmosphere makes it so much fun to visit and I could definitely see this place as becoming one of my regular haunts.

We decided to go again for lunch a week later as my grandma was visiting us from Perth, and it was one of the most amusing trips I’ve had in a long time. This was her first trip down here with us, and boy can she drink! I think tasting to her is a concept, where as drinking is the reality, we managed to visit 5-6 wineries and everytime we blinked the wine disappeared. Hats off to Driftwood wines, extremely nice bloke who’s “she must have liked it, its all gone” after every single glass had us cracking up each time, and Credaro wines where grandma’s “why not” whenever she offered a new wine to try, even had her opening and drinking a new bottle of sparkling with us. What a charmer, best grandma ever!

Anyway I better get back to the food otherwise we might end up with another essay post. So we all decided to order and share, and what better to order in a pub than pizza, burgers, and fish and chips. After the food came …pub food……… no way! It was brilliant, it looked more like a 3 star restaurant style meal. The pizza was delicious we ordered a Moroccan pizza with dried apricots and feta cheese that had me popping extra lactose pills just so I could have another slice! And when the fries came out and we could’t believe we were sitting in a brewery, they were so quick and friendly with the service that we even ordered a second helping to go with the beer. Fish was great, burger was average – a little dry, so stick with the pizza if you come here, but seriously I can’t wait to come here another time, it’s a great hangout place, with a gorgeous view, mmm food, and good beer , what more could you want 🙂

So exams are finally finished!!!!! Yay, this means I finally have time to go shopping, cook, and of course EAT!!! So I’ve been trying sone random places in Perth with the family, and while some have completely and utterly sucked, some have actually been quite good. One if the restaurants that we tried was Sataymu in kardinya. It was a very cute little place that kinda reminded me if malaysia. Of note were the deserts, especially the Bubur Cha Cha, and Ice Kachang, they also have a pretty ok satay sauce there. Unfortunately their asam prawns were a little over cooked, but it did inspire me to cook my grandmas delicious Asam Prawns. So without further ado here is the recipe.

Prep time: 40 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

300g asam

1 cup water

6 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1kg prawns

3 tablespoons oil for each batch

Recipe:

dissolve the asam in the cup of water (use quite a large bowl as you’re going to have to mix all the prawns into it)

Clean, peel and devein the prawns ( its up to you how much shell you leave on, I like to cut off the heads and take off the middle shell, leaving the tail behind)

use your hands to mix the asam into the water and remove the seeds (just use your hand and scoop it out no need to strain) and the sugar, and soy sauce

put the prawns in the mixture and soak for at least half an hour.

In a wok (or large frying pan) add 3 tablespoons of oil and when hot add 6- 8 prawns single layer. Flip only once to completely cook and remove from the heat. Repeat for the rest of the prawns and mmmenjoy!

top left: Asam in a bowl! top right: asam mixture, have just added the soy sauce. Bottom left: cleaning the prawns, Bottom right: frying the prawns

The road to broken hill is hilarious! So my grandma wanted to go shopping in vic park, and because it’s holidays and we all have nothing to do, we figured why don’t we all come along and then all have lunch together. My brother is very much a steak person and so we figured why not try out the balmoral hotel. So being the avid food OCD researcher, I googled the place and checked out what it was rated etc. The one idiotic thing that I forgot to do was research where the hell the place was…. not so bad if you’re pretty ok with directions and can do it on the run (i.e. like all normal people out there) I on the other hand get lost everywhere. Somehow I inherited no sense of direction, seriously, friends have to pull me in the right direction when exiting lecture theatres as I always go the wrong way! Anyway after shopping, my mum – who thought she knew where the place was pulled up behind the hotel and we went in through the back. Because Vic park is relatively small we thought it had to be the place, because two hotels so close to each other would be silly right……apparently not. Now being the unobservant people that we are, we ordered while chatting away, and thoroughly enjoyed lunch, it was so good we figured why not check out dessert (while patting ourself on the back for discovering this place). The menus come back and then we realise…holy crap we’re at the wrong place!!!!! It was hilarious, we were all pissing ourself laughing afterwards, we’d managed to eat an entire meal without realising where we were, thank god the food was good, otherwise we never would have order dessert, and I would have probably written a terrible review on the wrong place!

Anyway I’d better write about the food now otherwise you’ll think I’m just a crazy, no sense of directions, unobservant person (which I pretty much am, but hey at least I still manage to find good food at the end of all my crazy journeys!).

So we ordered the fish and chips and…..gasp it was actually fresh! flaky, and delicious, their homemade tartare left something to be desired but the dish overall was great, with plenty of flavour and a nice salad to go along with it. The crispy pork belly was much too sweet for my liking though, and the crackle missed that teeth hurting crunch. Their prawns with lemon and chilli dressing was very nice and light (beware the garlic though! good thing they give free breath mints at the end!) and the steak sandwich was perfect pub food. It was odd that this place was so empty though – maybe because it was a Monday but it was great for us as the service was fast, and the staff were great.

For dessert we shared the sticky date and rum pudding, which was mmmdelicious. They managed to make it so it wasn’t over sweet, and it wasn’t too heavy. It really finished out the meal nicely, overall I really liked this place and would definitely stop by again the next time we’re in that direction.

mmmdelicious -if I do say so myself. This is the ultimate winter dish, packed full of flavour, with sauce just waiting to be mopped up by a soft bread roll. Hope you enjoy, (cause I certainly am!)

Prep time: 1 day – only for the beans because it needs to soak overnight

Cooking time: 2.5 hours

Ingredients

100g dried cannellini beans

1 cup plain flour

6 x 200g pieces osso buco (veal shin), you can use beef instead if you want

1/2 cup olive oil

2 stalks celery, roughly chopped

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 carrot, roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

8 stalks flat- leaf parsley, leaves shredded, and stalks reserved

1 cup dry white wine

1 bay leaf

6 sprigs thyme

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 lemons zested

400g diced tomatoes

3 cups (750ml) veal stock

Method:

Place beans in large bowl and pro over 250ml cold water. Stand overnight. Drain.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Place flour in a bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Very lightly coat the veal with this mixture, heat a frying pan with 2 tablespoons oil and fry the veal, so it is sealed.

Place casserole dish over high heat and fry the onion, garlic, carrot, celery and parsley stalks for around 7 minutes or until just soft.

Stir in wine, bay leaf, thyme, tomato paste and half the lemon zest and cook for 5 mins or until liquid is reduced by half. Add tomatoes and cook stirring for 5 minutes.

Stir in stock and bring to the boil, add the beans and cover with lid and transfer to oven stirring occasionally for 1.5 hours.

Transfer casserole to the stovetop and uncover, cook on low-medium heat for 40 mins or until sauce has thickened and the meat is falling off the bone.

Remove from heat, add the remaining lemon zest and parsley. Serve and mmmenjoy.

Aww… so cute, I can’t believe I didn’t know about this place until now. This was the first time I actually ate here, and being Bunbury I managed to run into three different people that I knew and hadn’t seen in ages which was great. I couldn’t believe how much some people had changed. Anyway, this place was great for a relaxing meal with my family, it was small, quaint and downright adorable! There’s a great view as well (especially if its not freezing and you’re game enough to sit outside!) and the staff are very nice.

There’s nothing extravagant about the food, and it is very typical cafe style plonk, but for the price, atmosphere, and service it is well worth it.

Incase you didn’t know(and honestly don’t know why you would!) I love breakfast. I love having breakfast for dinner – weird I know, and so I loved that this place had all day breakfast. I of course couldn’t help but order a breakfast dish for lunch, and so I had the salmon benedict which was nice, very pretty , and quite flavoursome. The Tandoori salad that mum ordered was ok, the chickpeas were very underdone though, there was nothing special about the pie- but it was filling, and my brother certainly enjoyed it. The sticky pork salad again was average, and they did have the texture bit down pat, pity the flavour wasn’t more well thought out.

I think if I was to ever come here again it’d just be for breakfast, but none the less, by Bunbury standards it was great and i would definitely go there again.

Ok so you know when you start a short TV series and it really sucks, but you just have to finish it because………well just because. I did just that with ‘Kane and Abel’ and it actually paid off for once, the ending was done so much better than I expected 🙂 Anyway I made this salad a couple of days ago as I was recently in Margaret river and found the most delicious caramelised balsamic salad dressing. I couldn’t wait to try it out,I actually got a chance to try it out in the shop and I just knew it would work perfectly with this salad. If you are lucky enough to visit Margaret River you should stop by Flame Tree winery which sells this Caramelised Balsamic dressing, or Cape Farm Shop which actually produces it. If not then I’ve also added a Balsamic vinaigrette dressing below, its an oldy but a goody and it still does the trick. I’ve altered it a little though, usually people add around equal amounts of balsamic to olive oil, or more olive oil according to taste; however I’ve never been very big on the oil thing even when cooking, I always tend to use as little as possible. Instead I normally use a much higher ratio of balsamic to olive oil, also depending on my mood I might add some crushed garlic as well.

Prep time: 15 mins

No cooking time!

Ingredients

for the salad

1 avocado

1/2 cup walnuts

80g baby spinach leaves

100g smoked salmon

3 boiled eggs

2 roma tomatos

for the dressing

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

extra virgin olive oil to taste (i only ever use 1/8th of a cup max but it really is up to you and how you prefer it)

1 sprig fresh thyme

Method:

8th the tomatoes slice the smoked salmon into thin strips, quarter the boiled eggs, and slice the avocado.

Toss the spinach, walnuts, avocado, egg, salmon, and tomato in a bowl

In a separate small bowl mix the balsamic vinegar with a little olive oil and the thyme.

I’ve had an awesome day today, managed to catch up with an old friend that I haven’t seen in over six months, and boy can we talk! In a blink of an eye 1 hour had gone past! Anyway I had to quickly rush home to do dinner so I settled on something quite simple but delicious to make. The potatoes are really the standout of this dish, they just fall apart in your mouth, while still having that perfect crunch. It’s so simple an easy to do, I really recommend it if you have time.

prep time: 30 mins

cooking time: 30 mins

serves: 4

Ingredients:

for the potatoes

8 small Chat potatoes

3 sprigs of thyme

40g butter

salt to taste

for the salmon

2 large pieces of salmon

olive oil

salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius

peel the potatoes and boil for 15 mins

drain the water and allow to cool for 15 mins (but if you’re impatient 5-10 mins will do, just use a paper towel when smashing so you don’t burn yourself)

line a tray with baking aluminium foil and place the potatoes in it. Using the heel of your hand (just distal to the wrist, or where your carpels lie!) smash the potatoes (in other words give them a good hard whack).

sprinkle the thyme on top of the potatoes and break off the butter into tiny pieces and place around the potatoes.

Place in the oven for 20mins while periodically tossing so they are coated in the butter, then place under the grill for 5 mins.

Coat the salmon in oil and a little salt, add oil to a pan and fry for approximately 3-5 mins each side (fry on all 4 sides) and remove and sit on paper towels to absorb some of the oil.

Serve on a plate with the potatoes and even a salad if you like, and enjoy!

I finally got my wish and am now in possession of my very own Chef’s blowtorch!!! Yay! I’ve been nagging for a while but my accident prone status kind of stopped me from acquiring one. I figure what better way to celebrate than to make creme brûlée. The delicious custard and caramelised sugar at the top is perfect for a wintery day like today. I even decided to top it off with a three course meal for the fam, with a walnut, salmon and avocado salad entree, and fettuccine carbonara mains.

…5 hours later….

……….ok I might have been a tad bit too ambitious, unfortunately the blow torch was a bit difficult to light, by the time I did finally figure it out and get it to work I had unknowingly managed to drip butane into one of the creme brûlées. Poor dad, my first shot at making creme brûlée with a blow torch and I nearly end up poisoning him 😦 I should have just stuck with the grill! Anyway I tried it again the next day and it worked like a charm, dad was even game enough to try it again- though he did take a very small first bite! So here it is in all its glory 😛

Prep time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 45-60 mins depending on your oven and ramekin size

Waiting time: 4 hours (at least!) (it’s honestly best to do it overnight)

Ingredients

300ml thickened cream (I actually use a lactose free cream as I’m lactose intolerant, and it also works really well)

200ml milk

1 vanilla pod

100g egg yolks (approx 5 egg yolks)

70g caster sugar

30g caster sugar (for the top)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 130 degrees Celsius

mix the vanilla pod(scraped and add the beans) the cream and milk over a medium flame and allow to simmer but not boil. Remove from heat and leave for 5 mins, and strain to remove the pods. If there is a thin film on top ,scrape of with a spoon.

in a separate bowl add the egg yolks and caster sugar and whisk together immediately (or it will curdle).

Add the creme mixture to the yolk mixture, while concurrently beating. Remove the bubbles created by whisking with a spoon.

Pour into 4 ramekins so that each ramekin is 3/4 full

Cook bain marie (i.e. place ramekins in a tray and fill with boiling water so each ramekin is 3/4 covered) for 60 mins or until set, to check if it is set remove from tray and tilt side to side, if it does not jiggle then it is done.

Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature. Then place in fridge and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours and up to 24 hours.

when about to eat remove from oven and add a very fine layer of caster sugar, use the blow torch to caramelise. If you do not have one place under the grill until caramelised. mmmenjoy!

mmmjustlovely! I seem to be getting worse at driving than better 😦 I seem to stall more now than ever and parking is such a b**** Not to mention that I accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake at one point, I know complete and utter fail!!! Anyway I came back home and got to enjoy the most reliable chocolate tart. Ahhh such a good comforting friend! It just melts in your mouth, with a flaky moist and buttery crust, and a moist chocolate filling at the side, with a gooey chocolatey cream in the centre mmm………… wow my mouth just filled up with saliva! I honestly don’t know what I like more cooking or eating 😛 Anyway my break is nearly over, with just one more week to go, how sad I’m really going to miss these food filled days, I think this next week is going to be food central to make up for the coming lull. So here’s the recipe, I hope you enjoy!

Prep time: 1 hour (including resting time)

Cooking time: 30 mins

makes: 4 tarts (but seriously its very rich so I would say split one tart between 3)

Ingredients

for the pastry

340g plain flour

3 tablespoons icing sugar

3 tablespoons cocoa

pinch of salt

210g butter cubed)

3 tablespoons ice water

for the filling

225g dark chocolate

90g butter cubed

1/3 cup cream

1/4 cup caster sugar

2 eggs whisked

Utensils:

4x 12cm diameter tart trays

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius

In a bowl (or a food processor if you have one) add the flour, icing sugar, cocoa, salt, butter. Mix together by using your fingertips and rubbing together (or just use the food processor) until it is the consistency of rough bread crumbs.

Use your hands and bring together into a round ball, cover with glad wrap and refrigerate for 20 mins

Remove and roll between 2 pieces of baking paper until 3-5mm thick. Press into tart trays (run a rolling pin over the top to remove the excess pastry), refrigerate for 20mins.

Remove from fridge and blind bake (place a piece of baking paper over the tin and then fill with rice or beads) place in oven for 15 mins or until edges are cooked. Remove from heat and place in fridge until cool.

Change the oven to 170 degrees celsius

Create the filling by, melting the butter and chocolate together in a small pan over low heat. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 mins

In a separate blow whisk together the cream, sugar and eggs, slowly add the chocolate mixture to this while whisking.

Fill the tarts with the filling and bake for 15 mins or until the sides are set and the centre is slightly wobbly